Mostly I steer away from chronological scrapbooking and just scrap whatever photo has grabbed my attention on the day. This year however I've been putting together an 8" x 8" album with two double layout spreads for each month.
One has a 4" x 6" photo from the month, plus some journalling. Some months I choose an event or highlight to write about, other months just a description of parts of the daily routine. For this particular month my journalling was about our 10th wedding anniversary - how we celebrated it and some reflections on 10 years of marriage.
The other double layout has some journalling in list form, separated by dots. To put this together I usually have a flick through my calendar and diary, and through my photo files for that month and jot down notes. I type it up (Century Gothic font) and print it onto Whisper White cardstock. I put together a collage of photos from the month on the facing page - three 2" x 3" pics and six 2" x 1.5" pics.
Over the year these photo collages will show the four of us, other family and friends and other things about our day to day lives. I've found it is a great way to make use of those odds and ends photos - ones you like and want to look at, but might not feature in a layout of their own.
The layout designs for this album were inspired by a baby albumby Margaret Scarbrough that I saw in Simple Scrapbooks "Album Shortcuts."
I've kept the layouts super simple. I pick a colour for the month (these layouts feature Tangerine Tango for March and Pink Pirouette for April.) Textured cardstock, some colour coordinating designer series prints paper and usually some ribbon. I've added a couple of jumbo eyelets, rhinestone brads or other simple embellishment to some pages.
Keeping it nice and simple means I can put together the two double page spreads in one or two evenings of scrapping time, and makes it that bit less daunting a task to start.
I think it will be an album we'll enjoy looking through in years to come, with lots of little glimpses into our day to day lives in 2009.
Cheers, Sue
Love this idea Sue. I have been doing something similar but might change to this as it is a lot easier to knock over without all the stres. Thanks for the idea.
Posted by: Ros Davidson | 21 September 2009 at 07:56 PM
Fabulous Idea! And great work. And I love getting to read your journaling.
Congratulations on your anniversary earlier this year.
Posted by: Ellen Kemper | 22 September 2009 at 12:02 AM
What a lovely idea .... think I might just start one of my own ... like the idea of an 8 x 8 album as I normally only scrap 12 x 12. Keep up the great work girls - I love the new site.
Posted by: Nikki Sadler | 22 September 2009 at 11:35 AM
I too love this idea Sue, great job. I wish I was that clever with Photoshop
Posted by: Tanja | 01 October 2009 at 11:14 AM
What a clever idea Sue...and how great will this be to look back on in years to come!
Posted by: Miriam Thomas | 02 October 2009 at 09:39 PM